


Sleep until tomorrow's better

by Beleriandings



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Nott and Caleb are perpetually on the run and probably had some rough times, everyone takes several levels of exhaustion probably, the day before canon ep1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-11 01:12:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16465844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beleriandings/pseuds/Beleriandings
Summary: Prompt from a platonic touch meme on tumblr, "carrying while half asleep" for Nott and Caleb.





	Sleep until tomorrow's better

Despite the heavy clouds and pelting rain, Caleb knew – as he usually did – exactly what time it was; it had just gone two hours past midnight.

He also knew – more or less, by the map that the coachman had had before – roughly where they were on the road to the nearest town. Unfortunately, with these combined facts, he also knew they had about as much hope of reaching there before morning came as he had of making a campfire to warm their hands, which were starting to go numb with cold as the icy wind blew unremittingly against their soaked clothes and hair.

Not that he hadn’t tried; he had held a little flame in his hands for Nott to warm her hands by not long ago, but his attempt to light a bundle of soaked sticks by the side of the road had failed, as he had expected. Now, they had both fallen silent, plodding forward hand in hand in the rain-lashed dark that was only broken by the sight of Caleb’s dancing lights. Nott, beside him, had taken to watching the lights bobbing along before them and on both sides as though mesmerised. Her breath and his clouded in the cold night air, mingling with the little halos of brightness where the rain bounced off the arcane lights. 

She was staring with a rather glazed expression, her ears drooping in the way that Caleb knew by now meant she had gone beyond a bad mood to sheer exhaustion. Even Frumpkin had, of his own accord, ceased padding along beside him and jumped up to wrap around Caleb’s shoulders like a very heavy, very wet scarf. Actually, Caleb couldn’t blame him for that.

It was fair enough too, he thought, that the coachman had thrown them out when it became apparent that they were not, in fact, a mother and her young child, but instead… well, who they really were. And if their appearance alone hadn’t been enough, there was also the fact that they hadn’t had enough to pay the public coach fare to the next town. And the fact that Nott had been caught with her hand in one of the other passengers’ pockets. That probably hadn’t helped.

They had had to flee town in even more of a hurry than usual, and their disguises had been correspondingly rudimentary. Still, either way it was the same, because the driver had stopped the whole coach to throw them off at the side of the road, then promptly whipped the horses back into motion and vanished off into the rain. And now they were faced with the prospect of walking for the several hours that it would surely take to get there. They had next to money, and barely a spell or two left between them, until they slept. So, walking in the rain it would have to be. Caleb blinked as thunder rumbled overhead, and sneezed; he seemed to be catching a cold. Not that he couldn’t tolerate it, and of course he had no right to complain, but it was…inconvenient. He blinked sodden hair from his eyes, miserably.

Beside him, Nott sneezed too. Frumpkin yowled dejectedly.

At the sound, Nott looked up, her eyes barely focused, blinking up at him. She sagged against him, tugging on his hand for a moment, until she seemed to force herself upright with willpower. Caleb sighed. “Nott, do you want me to carry you?”

“No, don’t worry about me!” chirped Nott, blinking a few more times. She stifled a yawn, pulled down her mask and wiped her nose on her sleeve, then took out her flask, making a face when she remembered it was empty. “I’m just fine!”

“You are falling asleep on your feet, Nott.”

“Not…really… besides, _you’re_ the one who needs sleep, Caleb.” She looked rather downtrodden, which was not hard with her bedraggled appearance. “I’m sorry I blew our cover back there. That was my fault.”

“No, those disguises were not my best anyway.”

“Psh, Caleb, they were lovely. You did the best you could.”

“ _Ja_ , well. They did not work.” He frowned, grasping Nott’s hand to keep her from slipping into a pool of muddy water that had gathered in one of the wheel ruts on the road. “And it will be…a while before we are in the next place. I am sorry.”

She nodded, clearly dejected but trying to stay positive. “What’s it called again?”

“The town?” Caleb thought back to the map he had seen briefly. “Ah… Trostenwald.”

“D’you know anything about it?”

Caleb smiled, wryly. “No. But we are not wanted for anything there yet, and that is good enough for me.”

She squeezed his hand. “I hope they have a book shop there. For you.”

“We are… very broke right now, Nott.”

“We’ll get some money, then.” She looked up dreamily, at the bobbing light directly in front of her. “I hope there’s a tavern full of fancy people from out of town, who aren’t paying attention. With big pockets… on the _outside_ of their coats. Also, booze.”

“That is a lot of wishes. I just hope there is somewhere we can sleep that is out of the rain. Frumpkin does not like having wet fur.”

“Oh, yes. How long will _you_ sleep for?”

“I do not know. Maybe an entire day!”

“I bet I can sleep for longer.” Nott giggled. “Bet you all the money we don’t have.”

“ _Nein_. _I_ bet _you_ all the money we do not have that _I_ can sleep for longer.”

“Done.” She gave a pained grin, flicking her ears a little to shake the water off. Caleb sneezed again, in the silence. “We’d better hurry there, before you catch a cold.”

They walked quietly for a little while longer, a companionable sort of silence, quickly becoming a silence born of simple exhaustion. Caleb’s fingers and feet were almost completely numb now, his whole body soaked as though he had fallen into a freezing pond.

After a while, though, he felt Nott’s fingers loosen in his, and he only had a moment to react as she slipped to the ground, making a high whimpering sound as she fell in the mud. Immediately, Frumpkin jumped down from shoulder, standing delicately on the grass bank beside the road and beginning to lick Nott’s cheek as she leaned down, clutching her ankle with gritted teeth.

Caleb knelt down in the mud beside her, his own exhaustion momentarily driven away by the grimace of pain on her face as she clutched at her ankle, which must surely be twisted or worse. He winced; Nott had convinced him to take their last healing potion himself two towns ago, when he had clumsily sliced his palms open climbing over that spiked metal fence. He should have saved it; _stupid_ , he thought, reflexively.

“Ah…it’s fine, Caleb, I can walk!” protested Nott, trying to use a reluctant Frumpkin to lean against and lever herself up before collapsing back in the mud with a quiet shriek as her ankle gave out under her.

“No you cannot” he said firmly. He took her hands in his and trying to calm her as best he could. Caleb knew he himself had a higher tolerance for pain than most, but seeing her hurting was always than any injury he might suffer. She didn’t deserve it, after all.

He frowned, making a decision, slipping his hand into his component pouch. Summoning all the strength that was left to him, he scooped Nott up into his arms, swaying a little and nearly falling himself before catching his balance. She was not heavy, but she was soaked with water and squirming in protest immediately, which made things significantly more difficult.

“Caleb! Put me down. I’m – _ow!_ \- I’m fine…”

“ _Nein_. You cannot walk like this.”

“You’re exhausted!”

“And you are hurt. Please Nott. Trust me.”

That was it. She was always so inexplicably trusting. She looked at him for just a moment, and he took the chance of her momentary hesitation. He pulled back her hood a little, and summoning all of what little magical strength he had left – hopefully enough for the one spell – he sprinkled a little sand onto her forehead and muttered a few words under his breath.

Given how exhausted Nott was already, the sleep spell worked easily. Suddenly, she stopped struggling, curling up in the cradle of his arms. Getting his balance, Caleb maneuvered his arms a little so that her weight was better balanced in his arms, her relative warmth pressed against his chest as her even sleep breaths gusted out in frigid clouds.

Caleb let out his own breath, in a soft, whistling sigh. _Keep on moving forward. No time to waste_. Turning his face into the cold and the lashing rain, he pressed on into the night, with Frumpkin following along at his heels.

By the time he reached the town, the rain had slowed, and the cold light before dawn was beginning to reflect off the slate-grey waters of a long lake. A damp wooden sign with flaking paint proclaimed that the town that clung to the curve of its bank was Trostenwald. Caleb’s eyes barely skimmed over the letters though, his gaze slipping too over the face of the weary night guard as he told one of his more routine lies; he barely even recalled what he said, as he was holding Nott cradled to his chest, his damp scarf wrapped around her like an extra shawl.

The guard waved them through and he had just enough consciousness left to wander to the nearest inn, spend his very last few coins on a room. The climb up the stairs felt like a lifetime’s journey, before he entered the room and kicked off his wet boots.

He paused, then, laying Nott carefully down on the bed. Her ears twitched a little in her sleep, curling closer to Frumpkin as the cat jumped up onto the bed beside her, leaving wet, muddy paw prints on the sheets. Nott’s sleeping fingers found their way into damp ginger fur, and immediately Frumpkin began to purr.

His family, Caleb thought as he watched this, head spinning with sleep already. Not that he deserved to have a family ever again. But after all, he thought, he was a selfish man, and so he would take what he could get.

And that was the last thing that he thought before lying down on the bed beside Nott and Frumpkin, too tired to even take off his wet coat.

A mere moment later, he had fallen into a deep, deep and dreamless sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Ever wonder what happened to them before they turned up in the inn that made Caleb tired enough to sleep for the whole day? Well, I did I guess and this happened. Also, the author does not endorse non-consensual spellcasting on your friends of course but it feels...in-character here :(   
> I do love these two and their dynamic and I want to see more of them as kinda-shitty level 1 magical con artists though, that's fun to think about


End file.
